The Role of Personal & Professional Development Plan in the Future Growth - Essay Example

? Personal & Professional Development Plan number ial group Programme of study Table of Contents Introduction 3 Current Employment Sector 3 Future Career Aspirations 4 Skills Appropriate to meet Aspirations in the Organisational Context 4 People management skills 5 Time Management Skills 5 Marketing Skills 6 Organisational Skills 7 Leadership Skills 7 Conflict Management Skills 7 Use of a range of generic employability skills 8 Entrepreneurship Skills 9 Multi-cultural awareness skills 9 Project Management Skills 10 Career Planning 11 Applications of Skills at workplace 12 External factors which may hinder/support your future plans 14 Effectiveness of personal, academic and career/professional development 15 Conclusion 16 References 17 Introduction Personal and professional development plan is a need for every individual as it allows the individual to groom their skills and abilities on a continuous mode (Cottrell, 2003). The versatile skills required at each stage of the personal and professional development stage varies. In colleges and university phase, the individual is interested in the academic careers and growth, after graduation the need shifts towards becoming a successful professional in the business market (Megginson and Whiaker, 2007). This particular plan reflects upon my personal and professional development requirements and the skills needed to become successful in the personal and professional phase of life. The report discusses and how the individual plans to accomplish the tasks and goals of development for future growth perspective. Current Employment Sector I am a marketing graduate and my current employment is in an indoor manufacturing company. My designation is of a marketing assistant in the company. I have been employed in this organisation since 6 years. I have gained hands on experience in dealing with the marketing activities of the firm. I have the potential in dealing with international customers but unfortunately my current company does not many international customers and so this area of expertise remains unexplored. One of my strengths is that I can represent my organisation well as being a marketing assistant I deal with many clients for the company and hence have developed good representation skills. I have a command on a number of languages such as English, Russian and Lithuanian. For marketing managers it is important to be well versed with the native language of the country where the marketing practices are being conducted and I have this skill. My current work tasks are include preparation of email shots, brochures, ringing up to costumers and asking if they are happy with our service, noting the feedback of customers, and working upon future plans upon how the marketing strategies for the organisation can be improved. I also at times handle part of the administration work in my organisation. My organisation basically follows the UK sales strategy and we are operating with this strategy to accomplish all our marketing goals. Future Career Aspirations My career aspiration is focused towards attaining a challenging designation, specifically top managerial post, in the field of marketing. I aspire towards implementing the knowledge and skills attained during the degree program of marketing. I want to gain professional experience and growth in the areas of marketing management. I am a quick and ambitious learner and would love to gain guidance from the top management of any organisation. Experienced marketing professionals can provide valuable guidelines as to how things should be carried out. This guidance will help me to gain expertise and widen my knowledge horizon. For achieving the future career aspiration goals and objectives, I would need to undergo training and development sessions. By receiving training and development sessions, I would be receiving valuable guidance in improving my skills and also achieving my aims set for my professional career path. There are certain workshops and training sessions conducted on improving the marketing skills for marketing professionals. Attending such trainings would allow me to gain a good insight upon the latest marketing practices. Skills Appropriate to meet Aspirations in the Organisational Context The skills and areas that I believe are required for achieving my future career aspirations are mentioned below. These particular skills will allow me to groom as a successful marketing professional and the development of these skills may allow me to become a competent employee. The skills to be developed are: To work upon people management skills To work upon time management skills To work upon latest marketing skills To work upon organisational skills To work upon leadership skills To work upon conflict management skills People management skills Developing people management skills is a very important skill for professionals that are dealing with the customer or client end department of the firm. Dealing with people is an art and it is very important for marketing assistants and managers to learn the effective way of dealing with all types of customers and clients. People possess different types of nature, for organisations customers and clients are the King and therefore, they need to ensure that customers are satisfied till the dot (Moon, 2004). At times there are certain difficult customers that have a complaining nature and do not understand the basic things about the organisation’s products and services. These customers need to be dealt tactfully and in an effective way by satisfying their queries and complaints in the smartest way possible (Rogers, 2008). Time Management Skills Time management skills are important for personal and professional development as there should be a balance maintained between all personal and professional work activities. Everything should be done systematically, so that all tasks are achieved timely and also quality of work should be maintained in the tasks accomplished. Time needs to be balanced for studying, for leisure activities, for jobs, for family and friends. At work place, effective time management skills will be an added advantage as there are multiple times of tasks to be accomplished during work and with good time management skills, all work can be completed successfully (Adair and Allen, 1999). If time is not managed effectively, it may cause the individual to become stressful as there may remain highly important tasks that are incomplete at the end of the day. Work pressure and stress in the individual may cause the individual to underperform in all the other daily routine activities as well. So good time management skills are important for development in the individuals personal and professional development plan (Thomson, 2006). Marketing Skills Studying a marketing degree program and being currently employed as a marketing assistant has allowed me to gain hands on knowledge about marketing. Still, as we all know that the field of marketing is extremely vast and marketing strategies and tactics are changing with time and new types of strategies are emerging. Being in touch with the latest marketing strategies and tactics is extremely important. The benchmark practices used by successful organisations for marketing their organisations need to be reviewed so that applicability of such skills is possible in my future career (Homer, 2001). It is also important to note that while studying the benchmarking practices of any organisation, the entire nature of the organisations, its products and services need to be analysed because all play an important role in making any strategy successful. Organisational Skills Organisational skills usually consist of a wide number of skills that employee possess during work in the organisation. The most important ones are that employees know how to manage their time and tasks well according to priorities (Cunningham, Dawes, and Bennett, 2004). All organisational tasks need to be completed by the deadline give. This skill is polished by actually working in a firm and handling multiples tasks. Part of these skills has been reflected in the university educational career when multiple projects had to be submitted by the end of the semester and a lot of work pressure was faced by the individual. Assignments, presentations and reports all had to be submitted for majority of the courses in a particular semester. I learned the skill of time management and prioritizing work from this phase. Some tasks had to be given more priority than others and on some tasks more time had to be invested than others. Leadership Skills It is important to develop leadership skills at workplace. Certain tasks may have to be conducted where the employee may have to demonstrate good leadership skills in handling subordinates and other junior level staff towards attaining any specific goal for the organisation. It is said leaders are not made, they are born. Nevertheless, some elements of leadership skills should be present so that it allows the employer to be confident about the employee. Conflict Management Skills In organisations it is highly likely to observe different types of conflicts occurring amongst the employees or amongst the management and employees. We live in an opinionated world and there are strong chances that disagreement and opposing viewpoints may occur between two people or between two parties. The right of choices also consists of the right of disagreement as this is human nature. In organisations it is important to handle conflicts in an effective manner. All disagreements must be respected and a smart approach should be taken to arrive at an effective solution for any issue that has been discussed in the organisation. My personal and professional development plan also aims towards developing patience and a positive attitude so that all types of conflicts arising at workplace can lead to effective and creative solutions, for the organisation and for me both at the personal level and the professional level. Use of a range of generic employability skills The range of generic employability skills required for professionals at workplace are as follows: Entrepreneurship skills Multi-cultural awareness skills Project management skills Career planning The professional may overcome many of the work hurdles arising with the help of these generic employability skills. Good grasp of these skills may allow the employer to give high rankings to the employee and in turn the employee may be able to get a higher level position in the organisation. Entrepreneurship Skills Entrepreneurship skills allow individuals to start their own business. Business can be started from a low scale and can move on to a high scale business. The entrepreneur needs to possess good entrepreneurship skills so that the business can be handled with efficiency and effectiveness (Adair, 2007). An entrepreneur needs to have the skills in making business plans and working upon forming business ventures. He or she should have the ability to market and sell ideas in such a way that customers become attracted towards the business (Tavcar et al, 2005). Managing finance is another important skill that should be possessed by the entrepreneur because all cash flows need to be maintained and noted for making decisions accordingly. Managing finance includes all calculations of taxed and book keeping work (Lazear, 2004). Multi-cultural awareness skills It is important for university graduates to have the skills of multicultural awareness. Graduates can demonstrate such awareness through various types of skills and abilities. The elements of cultural heritage need to be understood clearly by the graduates. Cultural heritage and development of identity is an important relationship to be considered. Professionals need to be aware of the various views and values that are pertaining to the different types of business cultures (Lassiter, 2008). The multi-cultural awareness requires the professionals to understand the privilege systems and the oppression that are faced by various individuals and groups. Through multi cultural skills, the various types of challenges are understood well by the individual and they become well aware of the business practices that should be used (Watts, 1992). Working upon multicultural competence allows the individual to experience growth in their personal lives as well as their professional lives. Project Management Skills Professional graduates in their professional work environments at one time or the other may have to undertake project management tasks. The task may be either to lead any project or to be part of some project, in both cases the individual needs to possess good project management skills for becoming successful. Some project management skills that individuals should have are they should list out the requirements and priorities of the project. The deliverables of the project need to be understood clearly so that the project manager deals the project accordingly (Brown, 2000). Planning is another important aspect of project management skills. The manager needs to plan the project in the right perspective so that all goals and objectives of the project are achieved successfully. The number of important things that need to be planned by the project manager is the scope of the project, the deadlines, the cost and quality required in the project, the human resources required for the project, the way message needs to be communicated, the risk and procurement aspects of the projects (Kay and Hinds, 2009). Project managers need to understand the tools that are required for commencing the project successfully. They need to distribute the work load accordingly amongst the team members. Project manager should not overburden team members with workload. Change is a constant phenomenon that is taking place at a rapid pace and managers need to manage all types of change in a successful manner (Stephenson and Weil, 1992). The most important project management skills are to value team members to the optimum level possible. Human resources need to be valued so that they produce the desired results for the organisation. The main skills that are required to be possessed by the project managers are the communication skills, the people skills and the planning skills (Stone, 2007). Career Planning Career planning is an important phase for all individuals. All students and graduates need to plan their career in a systematic manner so that they achieve all their desired future goals and objectives successfully. People, who just go with the flow, do not attain the desired results and at times do not make productive use of their skills, abilities and knowledge. Hence, career planning is a must for all students, graduates and professionals. For professionals, job hunt may be an important aspect of their career planning (Mullins, 2009). Students and professionals need to plan their career by giving it deep thoughts and planning. Timely objectives need to be set by the students and professionals so that they achieve their aims and goals in life successfully. Career blueprints are important for individuals to develop as these blueprints act as purposeful guides for the individual along their personal and professional career phase. By laying out a blueprint, individuals have higher chances on making the right choice of career according to their interest, skills and talent (Homer, 2001). The advantages of career planning are as that it allows the individual to develop the right perspective; this can allow individuals to develop the right employee perspective and also make their profession meaningful (Wisker, Exley, and Antoniou, 2007). Career planning allows individuals to remain focused on a certain track in the career path. The focused growth will allow the gradual achievement of deadlines set for each career aim. Individuals will remain on the right track due to career planning. A well structured career plan will allow individuals to be in a winning position and would also allow them to achieve all their goals and objectives successfully. Applications of Skills at workplace I am aware that at workplace, the employee needs to possess a number of skills so that all the basic work activities can be conducted smoothly. At workplace, the employees have to face various types of tasks and situations. Some situations may seem favourable to the employees and some situations may seem that they are not in the favour of employees. Being an employee and part of the organisation, there are certain things that need to be considered regardless of whether one likes it or not. Some bosses may not be welcoming, and employees may need to have patience to deal with such types of bosses (Carter and McMahon, 2005). Employees need to have the basic workplace core skills so that they can perform their job successfully. Workplace skills are important for employees to have as this is a necessity for attaining success in modern businesses worldwide (Cunningham, Dawes, and Bennett, 2004). Organisations such as hospitals, government offices and schools require sharp minded employees that possess the basic workplace skills. I aim and work towards developing such workplace skills so that I can provide services in any business organisation as well as any non profit organisation. The types of workplace skills that I need to groom are the literacy skills that allow the communication processes to take place effectively. Other types of skills that are important at workplace to be demonstrated well are the attitudes and behaviours (Northouse, 2007). Positive attitudes and behaviours lead to high performances from the employees and employees therefore build up a good reputation in the firm. The employer starts valuing hard working and dedicated employees that have positive behaviours and attitudes at workplace (Jarvis, Lane, and Fillery-Travis, 2006). My improvement towards the basic workplace skills would allow me to become more conscientious. I would be working according to the requirements of my employer and job and the results produced would be productive for me both at the professional level as well as the personal level (Waller and Holland, 2009). The skills I have and plan to improve upon further at workplace are the ability to comprehend and writer reports, memos, letters and other such types of documentation work in the organisation. I want to enhance my communication skills further as my main job role is on marketing the firm and I have to meet up different clients and convince them about the brand (Dubrin, 2004). Comprehending charts and tables is another important attribute and skill that should be possessed by marketing managers and assistants. The sales demand and forecast are usually depicted in the forms of graphs, and the entire marketing team needs to be aware of how to read the graphs, analyse the graphs and according plan on how to increase future sales and growth of the firm through marketing (Connor and Pokora, 2007). Critical thinking and decision making is another important skill required at workplace. At times some situations demand that critical thinking skills should be implied and in these cases decisions need to be taken on an immediate basis. Skilful and strong decision making skills would allow the marketing managers and assistants to take the right decision at the right time. Use of computers and other types of technological tools is one of the basic necessities for employees at workplace (Price, 2004). Almost at all levels of management, the employees need to have the grasp of how to operate computers and use the information technological advanced software at workplace (Cohen, 2005). Team work abilities are important skills to be demonstrated at workplace. All professionals should have the ability to be a team player and accordingly contribute towards all the tasks that are to be completed by the team. Individuals should also have the potential to accept changes that are taking place in the firm (Professional and Plan, 2009). Changes can be observed in the management, in the implementation of any new software, premises, working policies and other such types of changes. Positive attitudes should be demonstrated when any change takes place in the firm as this would result in productive results for both the employee and the management (Clutterbuck, 2007). All professionals and other individuals should have the ambition of being in a process of lifelong learning as this would allow individuals to constantly explore new things and ideas along their career path as well as their personal life (Sangster, 2000). External factors which may hinder/support your future plans Competition is increasing at a constant rate around the world. Everywhere it can be observed that all types of resources are becoming competitive and everyone has to remain up to date with the latest happenings so that they can remain in competition. This type of competition has an involuntary pressure on organisations and the workforce to work harder and acquire the necessary skills needed to perform all job roles well. This competition acts as a support for the individual in learning new things and skills gradually with time (Rogers, 2008). Some consultancy forms provide general trainings for employees from any industry. The general training skills include leadership training, conflict management, and team work and so on. In these specific training, qualified and experiences trainers are hired. By attending such outsourced trainings one can gain valuable experience and insight towards the respective skill. Attending these trainings will support me in accomplishing my personal and professional development goals and objectives. The factors that may act as a hindrance in achieving the future plans may be if some off the job tasks are provided and I may have to travel to other areas in completing the task. The political and legal changes on organisations may impact the future plans but this would be a rare case as mostly all organisations follow the business laws of the country. Effectiveness of personal, academic and career/professional development The skills that have been discussed above have been studied and practiced throughout the degree program course. Some skills need to be constantly practiced and developed and some skills have been developed well. The degree program helped me to analyse my weaknesses and strengths in depths. The way university education was conducted, my strengths were polished furthermore and steps were taken to overcome my weaknesses that would prove useful for me both in my personal and professional development career. One of my main weaknesses in university was to face the audience and give presentations. This fear had been overcome by the compulsion of course requirements and lecturers to present the reports and projects in front of the class. The academics play an important role in developing students toward the professional career field. Many important ways of communications and handling people are discussed during the academic career of the students. Through case studies, various business scenarios are discussed; their problems and solutions tend to give an understanding to the students as to how the business world operates and how professionals should perform in organisations. Conclusion The report reflects upon the skills that I want to develop in my professional career which would also assist me highly in my personal career too. The different types of skills required at workplace and the need to develop the organisational level skills are discussed in detail. The academic career, during the stage of pursuing the marketing degree program has helped me to explore the important aspects of professional career development. Professional development plan is important to be developed by all individuals as it provides a guideline for the individuals to follow and accomplish their goals at each stage. My current employment sector has been discussed in the report along with my future career aspirations. My interest and majors in academics revolves around marketing and this entire report has been developed in accordance with specializing in the field of marketing with the required skills and knowledge. 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